1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a copy machine and a printer, an image processing apparatus and the like, which processes image data formed by the image forming apparatus, and an image forming method.
2. Related Art
In recent years, a technology in which a user writes a letter or picture on a special paper on which fine dots are printed, and transfers data such as the letter and the like written on the paper to a personal computer, mobile telephone and the like, thus enabling saving and mail transmission of the contents, has attracted attention. The technology is configured in such a way that small dots are printed on the special paper at an interval of, for example, around 0.3 mm, which depicts a different pattern, for example, for each grid of a prescribed size. By reading this using, for example, a special pen with a built-in digital camera, the position of the letter and the like written on the special paper can be identified, and this kind of letter and the like can be used as electronic information.
In recent years, however, it has become possible to output a high quality image from an image forming apparatus such as a copy machine or a printer. For example, with regard to an image resolution, an image forming apparatus with a high resolution of 1200 dpi, 2400 dpi has appeared. Also, with regard to an accuracy of the image formation position, present copy machines and printers have improved to a unit of 100 μm.
Along with this improvement in image quality, a high quality has come to be required for an image which a user peruses (a document image obtained from an electronic document, a photographic image obtained from a photographed image and the like) Contrarily, in the case of a code image which is used, not for the user to peruse, but simply to read some information mechanically, there is not such a demand for a high quality.